Featured Grants

Hooked on Books

First-year media coordinator Dannelle McPherson of Hallsboro-Artesia Elementary School (Columbus County) applied for a Brunswick EMC Bright Ideas
grant for new books for her school’s library. The shelves were sparsely stocked with worn and outdated books. McPherson surprised a group of
3rd and 4th graders with a colorful display on the wall and a table full of new titles, including favorite such as the Junie B. Jones series,
the Magic Tree House series, and If You Give a Dog a Donut by Laura Numeroff. “The new books really sparked our students’ interest in reading,” McPherson said.

Dr. Erin Nelson, a K-5 teacher at Triangle Day School in
Durham, won a Bright Ideas grant through Piedmont EMC for her
project, "Bring Science to Life." The grant provided money to
purchase a variety of live animals for interactive science labs for
each grade level. For instance, kindergarteners kept journals of
the traits they learned about in animals such as goldfish, aquatic
snails, earthworms, mealworms, praying mantis, lady beetles, mice
and gerbils. First graders created terrariums for millipedes,
earthworms and pill bugs. Second-grade students studied insect
life cycles and worked in groups of 2 or 3 to follow the complete
life cycle of mealworms and tobacco hornworms, as well as the

incomplete life cycles of the praying mantis and milkweed bugs.
Third and fourth graders studied plants, animal behavior and
adaptations, while fifth graders built eco-columns and connected a
terrarium to an aquarium, teaching them about the inner-connectivity
of land and sea. Although each grade level used different
materials and required unique lesson plans, Dr. Nelson was able to
fully engage her students through discovery-based learning, thanks
to her Bright Ideas grant funding.

Greening Up Our School

Nathan Stack, a teacher at Alderman Road Elementary in Fayetteville, used his Bright Ideas
grant money to purchase a 180-gallon composter. The project, called "Greening up Our School,"
was sponsored by South River EMC in Dunn, and it aims to teach students to make better food
choices and to be mindful about wasting food. The composter contains food items such as
leftover fruits and vegetables, yard waste and coffee grinds. After these materials decompose,
students will use them as fertilizer around their school. Congratulations to Mr. Stack and
all of the students at Alderman Road that will benefit from this innovative project.

Reading, Writing and Blogging

Rachel Smith, a teacher at Cerro Gordo Elementary, won a
Bright Ideas grant through Brunswick EMC for her project,
"Reading, Writing and Blogging." The grant funding purchased
five iPod nanos that were used nearly every day to bring some
excitement into her classroom and help improve reading fluency and
comprehension for her third and fourth grade students.

Students selected poems and short stories to record on the iPods.
They were then able to listen to themselves reading. They
concentrated, took the time to decode more difficult words and read
with expression because they knew their classmates would hear the
story later. Many students voluntarily read the same story
repeatedly, perfecting their recording.

Smith notes, "My students loved the iPods, but I think it was also valuable
for them to understand that we received them from a local business
that was interested in their education. The kids were just
fascinated that a company was using their money to help our class.
Several of the students wanted to know if we had to 'pay back'
Brunswick EMC. I explained that although we didn't return any money
to the business, we repaid the investment by doing our best in
school."